Mark Zuckerberg says he is all for the concept of net neutrality

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg backed the concept of net neutrality at a private luncheon attended by Indian government officials, lawmakers and industry heads, and said that the future of the Internet was moving towards augmented reality and rich in video content.

Sources present at the informal meeting said that the 31-year-old billionaire spoke about supporting the concept of net neutrality – which guarantees consumers equal and non-discriminatory access to all data, apps and services on the internet – across countries.

Members of Parliament, who attended the luncheon, discussed specific issues and concerns relating to zero rating, as well as Internet.org or Free Basics. The policy makers highlighted that the government flagship programmes like Digital India, Smart Cities and Startup India, Standup India focus on providing and improving the access to people and that it is very important that this access is available equitably to all.

Zuckerberg, however, defended Internet.org or Free Basics, saying that the programme did not violate net neutrality and was different from the zero-rating platforms that telcos were offering. “Free Basics is a way of offering internet to the poor or those who don’t have internet for free,” Zuckerberg told the gathering, a senior government official who attended the working lunch meeting, told ET.

Unlike the zero-rating platform offered by telcos, Facebook doesn’t charge from anybody, doesn’t pay any access provider or take payments from access providers for offering access to consumers, Zuckerberg is believed to have said.

Facebook did not respond to questions seeking confirmation of the comments made by Zuckerberg at the meeting.

Zuckerberg’s comments come in the backdrop of a telecom department report that came down heavily on Internet.org. It found that Facebook was playing the role of a “gatekeeper” in determining which websites were in “the list” and this was viewed as violating net neutrality.

But the Facebook head honcho is believed to have said that the social-networking giant did not do any “gatekeeping”, as per a second person at the meeting. Zuckerberg’s luncheon meeting followed a town hall at IIT-Delhi on Wednesday where he drove home the criticality of India to company’s mission of connecting the next billion people. Addressing some 1,000 students and invitees, he pitched connectivity as a tool for alleviating poverty, while adding that one job is created for every 10 people that get access to the web.

A day later too, Zuckerberg highlighted that India was very important for Facebook as it is not only the second-biggest market but also around one billion of the nearly 4 billion unconnected users reside here. While India has the third-largest internet user of 300 million in the world, more than 1 billion remain unconnected.

Thursday’s working lunch, organised by FICCI, was attended by top government officials like DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant, DoT Secretary Rakesh Garg, DeitY Secretary JS Deepak apart from Bharti Enterprises Vice-chairman Akhil Gupta, and a few MPs including Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT Anurag Thakur, and MP Rajeev Chandrashekhar.